TAIEX edges up
The TAIEX closed up 0.43 percent yesterday on follow-through buying after the benchmark index finished above the 8,300-point mark for the first time in more than nine months a day earlier, dealers said.
The index rose 36.25 points to 8,343.23, after moving between 8,319.01 and 8,353.86, on turnover of NT$119.49 billion (US$3.93 billion).
A total of 2,176 stocks closed up and 1,728 were down with 399 remaining unchanged.
Cathay Life opens China branch
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the nation’s largest life insurer by market share and a subsidiary of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), yesterday won China’s approval to open a branch in Tianjin, the company said in a statement.
The Tianjin branch will be the insurers eighth as it actively expands its presence in China, the company said.
Chunghwa forecasts Q4 sales
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest phone operator, forecast fourth-quarter sales of NT$46.8 billion and earnings per share of NT$1.1, the Taipei-based operator said in an exchange filing yesterday.
Pre-tax profit was forecast at NT$12.68 billion, the statement said.
Volkswagen denies Yulon deal
German automobile maker Volkswagen said it has not yet reached any concrete agreement on investing in Taiwan, but indicated that the country remained in consideration as a possible location for an overseas production site.
Taiwanese media reported on Monday that Volkswagen and Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) were expected to strike a deal under which Yulon would assemble cars for the German company, but a company spokesman in Germany said the reports were premature.
“Volkswagen is looking for opportunities for expansion in ASEAN and Taiwan,” the spokesman said, “But Volkswagen has not reached any concrete agreement on investing in Taiwan.”
Lite-On reports Q3 profits
Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技), the world’s biggest maker of power supplies for notebook computers, yesterday reported NT$6.8 billion in third-quarter net profit and NT$7.03 billion in pre-tax profit for the first three quarters.
The company said in a stock exchange filing that its net revenue totaled NT$77.38 billion in the first three quarters, with earnings per share of NT$3.05. It did not provide figures for the previous year for comparison or elaborate
Gemalto sues HTC over patent
Gemalto NV, a Netherlands-based provider of digital security services, said on Monday it had filed a lawsuit in a district court in the US against Taiwan’s smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) for patent infringement.
Gemalto is also suing US-based Google Inc and Motorola, as well as Samsung Electronics of South Korea, claiming all four infringed its patents by using its technologies in Google’s Android operating system, a statement issued by the company stated.
HTC was not immediately available for comment on the litigation.
NT dollar falls against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.03 to close at NT$30.760.
Turnover totaled US$789 million during the trading session.
The greenback opened at NT$30.8 and moved between NT$30.53 and NT$30.82 before the close.
Dealers said the rise in the US dollar largely reflected the appreciation of the greenback against other Asian currencies in the regional markets.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last